by B. Ann Patterson

Created on: June 13, 2010

World health authorities and male leaders of the world already know what can be done to make it medically possible for women of the world to heal from pregnancy and childbirth complications. The tragedy is that millions of young girls and women do not have access to even the simplest medical care.  Perhaps the first step is for men to respect the women of their nations. 

Respect for women by male leaders must change.  Males must change their attitudes because they already have the authority to make the difference, to solve the problems of pregnancy and childbirth in their nations and communities.  They must learn to respect the women of their countries enough to apply the dollars to make health care available.

Young girls living in African countries face malnutrition in their daily lives.  Poor nutrition causes their bones to fail to properly develop while they are required to carry heavy loads even at the age of five.  By the time they are ten, they are carrying loads heavier than the average American woman of childbirth age can lift. Carrying loads of wood, water and other essential items during the critical years of skeletal development and malnutrition, causes imperfect development in the hips and makes it impossible for a fetus to exit the birth canal.

Cultural attitudes in the same countries allow early marriage to girls when they reach puberty.  The tragedy is set in motion as soon as the child in such marriages becomes pregnant.  While the fetus develops, the girl conducts her expected daily duties that demand heavy lifting and carrying loads that continue to damage her bones and body.  The fully developed fetus suffers also.  It may also be malnourished and thus it absorbs the young mother's nutrients; therefore, neither may survive childbirth.

Labor ensues, usually too soon.  The girl labors hour after hour while every surge of childbirth pounds onto the tissue protecting the baby's head in the birth canal.  Each time the baby tries to exit the birth canal it smashes the tender tissues causing ripping and tearing when the tissue is ground between the baby's head and the mother's hip bones.  Because she lacked adequate nutrients, the bones failed to fully develop and the exit for the baby is far too small.  The baby is killed in the birth canal while the mother's body rages against her.

Sometimes the birthing mother suffers labor contractions for days, as many as thirteen days,

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